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“For the last year and a half we have said Assad has to go, but how long and what the modality is …that’s a decision that has to be made in the context of the Geneva process and negotiation,” Kerry said at the time.

In November, President Obama confirmed there had not been any change in the administration’s stance on the issue, and again said that Assad had to go.

But only a few weeks later, Kerry said this after he met with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin: “The United States and our partners are not seeking so-called regime change.”

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“No one should be forced to choose between a dictator and being plagued by terrorists,” Kerry said while adding that the Syrian opposition’s demand that Assad “must go” is a non-starter.

A week ago, after the start of negotiations about the future of Syria in Geneva, Western Journalism reported about a possible grand bargain between Obama and Putin that could explain Putin’s latest moves in Syria.

The deal between Obama and Putin would leave Assad in power in areas in south, north and west Syria and would divide the country in three separate entities.

“Syria would be split up in a Sunnistan, a Kurdistan, and a Cosmopolistan. Sunnistan that would include Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa, assuming the whole province may be extensively purged of ISIS/ISIL/Daesh. Kurdistan would be in place all along the Turkish border. And Cosmopolistan would unite the Alawi/Christian/Druze/secular Sunni heart of Syria, or the Syria that works, from Damascus up to Latakia and Aleppo,” we reported, citing independent commentator Pepe Escobar.

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On Monday it became clear the Obama administration has indeed collapsed on the demand of regime change in Syria.

Reuters reported that CIA Director John Brennan had been in Moscow at the beginning of March to discuss the issue of leaving Assad in power.

“The director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency raised the issue of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad leaving power when he visited Moscow at the start of March, ” Reuters reported, citing Ria News Agency that said it obtained the information from the U.S. embassy in Moscow.

A spokesman for the CIA confirmed that Brennan had visited the Russian capital at the beginning of March and refused to disclose the exact issues that were discussed, but he did admit that Syria was on the agenda for the talks.

A couple of days after Brennan visited Russia, Putin announced he would withdraw most Russian forces from Syria. He did that on the day the negotiations about the future of Syria were reopened in Geneva.

But last week it became clear that Russia is still heavily involved in the war in Syria and that only a small part of the Russian forces has been withdrawn from the country.

The recapture of the strategically important city of Tadmur (Palmyra) in central Syria by Assad’s army was facilitated by the Russian army and air force and shows again that Putin — and not Obama — is dictating events in Syria and very likely the future of the country.

This was confirmed by U.S. General Joe Dunford the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said today that the Russians have stabilized the Assad regime and “have put themselves in a position to influence the political solution.”